The tributary stretched out in front of us from the Euphrates, pointing toward the northernmost fringes of Saqlawiyah, Iraq. Weapons platoon maneuvered a column of vehicles down from the main supply route (MSR) to a small dirt road that ran parallel to the river. A latticework of paths and irrigation ditches, swollen with water, striped the green plain of farm fields. Halfway down the slope from the MSR to the dirt road, everyone but the drivers dismounted to form up for the sweep: two columns, one on each side of the road.
